Updates on the Baby-Crochet Front

Wow I can't believe it's been about 6 months since I posted anything - whoops!

I've been busy with work, with volunteering, and of course with vacations (lots of time spent on the beach...) so I haven't had much time to post. It's not that I've stopped crocheting though - not at all.

More Zigzags...

In fact, I've made 2 more zigzag baby blankets since my last post about those.

First, I made one for my cousin-let (which I mentioned in a previous post - younger brother of the first recipient of a zigzag blanket), who was born in March. Amazingly, I actually finished the blanket and mailed it out to them BEFORE he was born! Here he is at a couple of weeks old (I think), all cuddled up in the blanket - isn't he sweet? And here's a shot of me holding the blanket just before I shipped it off. Hmmm... ignore my messy apartment in the background, ok?

For this blanket I used the same yarn as the other zigzag blankets - it's so lovely and soft and it comes in great colours. As usual even though I knew they were expecting a boy, I refuse to go uber blue for boys and uber pink for girls (Incidentally, did you know that the opposite used to be the norm? Blue was considered to be a feminine colour, and pink, as a lighter form of red, was considered to be masculine - funny how societal norms change over time, huh??). However, since his sister's did include pink (though it was mostly purple and white), I thought his should have SOME blue - So I used a couple of shades of blue, one really pale and one quite dark, plus a creamy green (this colour always makes me think of lime sorbet...), and white.

My previous blankets of this design have all had stripes that were the same width, however with the intense dark blue colour here, it was too overpowering in a big stripe, and would have been way too blue, so I varied the widths of the stripes, with a wide light blue, then only 1 row of dark blue, then a medium green and medium white stripe before starting the pattern again. Finally I used a basic border of the dark blue to finish it off.
I am quite happy with how it came out - what do you think?

Next, I made another one for a staff member at the organization that I volunteer on the board for, who has recently gone on parental leave, so it as kind of a congratulations/going away gift from the board. Her baby (we didn't know the sex ahead of time, but it was a boy) arrived in June, and of course he came early, so the blanket was a few days behind the baby - so much for being on time huh?


Partly because I love rainbows, partly because we didn't know the sex ahead of time, and partly because theirs is a GBLT family, I decided to go with another rainbow blanket, very similar to the first rainbow one I made last summer. What I did change this time though, was adding a more decorative border. I have a great book called Around the Corner Crochet Borders, and since the blanket was late anyways.... I don't have a picture of the baby with his blanket yet, but here are some shots of the blanket and a close up of the border:

 It was a bit challenging to adapt a border pattern that does a great job of 90 degree corners - for a zigzag edging...












Rainbow Booties!

Last spring we went back to Alberta for a visit, and I knew we would be seeing some friends who have just had their first child. I was up to my ears in the two baby blankets above, and I knew I wouldn't have time to make one for them, but I wanted to have a present to bring. So I decided to make their little guy a set of these painfully adorable baby booties - again in a rainbow pattern because I love rainbows, and they are another GBLT family.

I used the same yarn as for the blankets above, and this free pattern from Red Heart. They would have been really quick to work up - I did one boot during a meeting (I think I may have been somewhat distracting... oops!) - however I managed to switch hook sizes between one boot and the other, so I made 2 sizes by accident! So then I made one more of each size of course, and ended up with 2 pairs! Here is a picture of the booties, and of course one of the little guy modelling them for all of you, while being held by one of his very proud moms!



















Other Projects...
I've also been working a lot on my full sized afghan - which I will save for a whole post of its own later - but man it is a whole lot more work do make a full sized blanket than to make a baby-sized blanket, or tiny baby booties! Ah one of the many reasons I love crocheting for babies!


Update: You can find these items on my Etsy Store